


The Road To Wellington

by MidnightUndead



Series: The Walking Dead Chronicles [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (Video Games)
Genre: Apocalypse, Blood, Death, Gen, Gore, Zombie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-26 08:00:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2644244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightUndead/pseuds/MidnightUndead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a fanficton that takes place inside The Walking Dead comic book and video game. It focuses on the struggles of a new group of survivors but characters from the game will appear later in the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crossroads

"Jesus, slow down Hunter, I can hardly keep up!" James said as he jogged up to his blond-haired friend. The heavy backpack he was wearing slowed him down a bit, but it was good that the group had lucked into that supermarket about 15 miles back, otherwise they'd be eating berries and roadkill.

The temperature was a cool 57 degrees with a slight wind, though the onset of winter was apparent from the firestorm of freshly dyed leaves falling from the trees. It had been nearly a year now (or close to it) since the dead had begun coming back to life to feast on the living. It had been a hard year for sure, yet the group James found himself apart of had only suffered a dozen or so casualties in his time with them.

Aside from his buddy Chad most of them had been strangers, newcomers he hadn't gotten to know yet or people who had died before he first came across them roughly ten months ago. This was probably a good thing as James had the misfortune to watch half of his friends and family die before being separated from them in a storm.

Hunter turned to his friend as he wheezed up to him with beads of sweat forming on his brow. "Come on slowpoke, we need to scout up to this big intersection and head back before breakfast gets cold. If I don't get at least one stale pop tart I'll feed you to the Groaners myself."

James gave him an annoyed smirk as he looked up ahead at the buildings getting ever closer in the distance. He had always hated hunter's nickname for the dead, preferring to call them Turned due to their nature of coming back after death. "You'll be the one groaning if you run into a pack of those damn things or did you forget why we had to leave the dollar store over this past month we've been on the road?" James teased as he put a hand on his combat knife, a gift of his long dead veteran grandfather.

"No, but I'm not nearly as dumb as that idiot Chad was. If he had left with the rest of us instead of stopping to try and kill the Groaner with the handgun on its belt he wouldn't have gotten bitten. Damn thing was empty anyway." Hunter replied as he pulled his bow off his back and opened his satchel of arrows.

James knew Hunter hadn't gotten along with Chad as well as he did, but it was hard to let his disrespectful comment slide without insulting him back. "How many arrows you got left?" James asked in an attempt to quickly get his mind off the subject. "Eight... no, nine in all." Hunter replied as he took an arrow from the satchel and prepared to draw it.

The intersection was closer now and even with the thick tree line obscuring the right half of the road in front of them it was easy to tell what the buildings up ahead were now. In addition to a long deserted gas station was a small diner and a bowling alley sitting across the street from a tiny drug store. It wasn't much, but a small town likely wasn't far off... which could mean anything from a big supply stop to an ambush waiting to happen.

It hadn't taken James or his group long to figure out that noise attracted the dead, yet for some reason most tended to stay in urban areas and only groups along the edges of cities and towns seemed to ever wonder off. "I wonder if every city in the world looks like Blackberry Falls did." he thought to himself as he looked out over the field to his left.

It was so quiet and peaceful it was almost unnerving. Nearly every day up until now he had seen several Turners shuffling about in the fields and forests, though the day was still young and danger could be just a few yards away with the state the of the world being what it was.

"Do you think we'll cross the Ohio river soon?" James asked, eager to break the eerie silence. "Probably not for at least a week or so, especially on foot. We just now arrived in Kentucky, though we should at least be a good ways in by now." Hunter replied as they scanned the buildings up ahead for any sign of movement.

"Alright, let's be quick and quiet about this." Hunter whispered as he drew back an arrow on his bow. "I want to get back before the food gets any colder than it already is." James nodded silently as he drew his knife and followed behind his friend. After silently peeking around the corner to see if the coast was clear Hunter lead James to the center of the intersection to take a quick look around.

A lone Turner slumped on the other side of a gas station pump was the only thing nearby that was moving and it hadn't even noticed them. "Do you see it?" James whispered as he pointed at the thing with his free hand. "Yeah, I'll take him out and search the station and the diner. Could you do a quick sweep of the drug store before we check the bowling alley?" Hunter said quietly as he began moving towards the gas station.

"See you in a few." James called softly as he walked over to the drug store. The lights were all out inside but a large hole in the roof let in just enough light to see where most everything was. In addition to two aisles of mostly empty shelves was a dirty front counter with a broken cash register on it as well as what looked to be a door to the back room.

James took a quiet breath and gently nudged the broken glass door open enough to get inside. The place gave him the creeps but it wasn't as bad as the time him and Chad nearly got trapped inside a Walmart by a herd of Turners. After a bit of searching he pulled out a small lighter he had taken from the dollar store and flicked it on.

It didn't provide very good illumination, but at least he could read the stuff on the shelves. Most everything useful was taken, but some aspirin and a full bottle of laxatives had somehow gone unnoticed. "Better than nothing I guess." James said as he put the pills in his coat pocket.

He had much less luck searching the front counter and didn't bother wasting any time going through a box of papers sitting on a shelf behind the front desk. Just as he was about to head back out his eyes once again fell on the door to the back room. It was probably locked, but you never know.

To his immense surprise the knob turned in his hand when he tried to open the door and came loose with a soft groan. The entire door then collapsed with a thud as James let out a startled yelp. On the other side of the doorway was a small room with a mattress in its center and various boxes lining the walls and a nearby tables.

What immediately caught James' attention however, was the charred remains of a corpse laying on top of the mattress, completely out of place with the otherwise untouched furniture and containers.

"Holy fuck..." James groaned softly as he dropped the light to the floor. Only a few seconds later Hunter came bursting through the front door of the small clinic, an arrow ready to fire at anything threatening his friend. "What the hell happened?! What is it?!" he yelled as he rushed to the back were James was standing.

"Oh my god, what happened to him...?" Hunter asked in a hushed tone as his eyes fell on the burnt husk that had once been a human being. "I... I don't know..." James finally replied as he took a step back. "Whatever happened here, it ended with that guy becoming a human barbeque... let's get the hell out of here before whoever did it decides to come back."

"Ha, fat chance!" Hunter said with a smirk, completely destroying the tense mood. "We gotta check the bowling alley out, especially after this! Who knows what we might find inside!" The words out of his friend's mouth hit James like a bucket of ice water, but didn't particularly surprise him. Hunter wasn't stupid, but he loved doing crazy shit and seemed to see the apocalypse as one big fun house of horrors.

"Seriously man? You want to stay here and see if we run into the people that did this? I know you like exploring, but you forget the saying about the cat and its curiosity?" James rubbed his forehead as he spoke the words and then turned to his friend, hoping his sanity would prevail. "Pfft, whatever man. That cat was a pussy and so are you, now let's hurry before we miss out on breakfast altogether." Hunter called as he began walking out the door.

"Goddamn it..." James groaned as he picked up the lighter and headed back out into the light.


	2. A New Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of The Road To Wellington.

“All hail the conquering heroes!” Hunter boasted proudly as he and James arrived back at camp. Most of the others were wrapped in blankets and huddled besides the small cook fire for warmth. “Hey, welcome back you guys. Find anything good up ahead?” asked a middle-aged woman in a sweater. It was Brenda, the church-going wife of a fisherman who had been forced to flee her home when the dead had first arrived. According to the others, she was one of the first members to join the group and had bashed her way there with just her husband’s old 9 iron. 

“Oh, hey Brenda, we didn’t get much stuff, but we did find a place where we might be able to take a rest.” James said hopefully as he took a seat on the side of the road and took out the bottle of aspirin he had found in the drug store. 

“What’s that ya got there, son?” Michael, the older and wiser leader figure of the group asked as he handed Hunter a styrofoam plate with some cooked fish on it. “Just some pain pills, not enough to last, but enough to probably deal with a week or so of headaches at least.” James replied as he tossed the older man the bottle.

Michael let out a sigh as he turned the bottle over in his hands. “Wish it was something I could actually use like morphine or some clean bandages, good work though.” he said solemnly as he put the bottle in his medical bag and handed James his breakfast. 

Over the months they had been together Michael and James had slowly developed a sort of father/son relationship with Michael teaching James some of the limited medical knowledge he had amassed over the years. Brain surgery was certainly out, but he could set a broken limb or treat a minor infection just fine with the basic equipment he had.  


“This all the food we get old man?” Hunter asked as he finished off the last of his meager fish ration. “Yep, for today at least. We’re running low and need to conserve.” Michael called as he disappeared into his tent to do a quick supply count.

“At this rate we’ll starve.” Hunter grumbled as he leaned against a large rock. “Hey, if the kids can do this a big guy like you shouldn’t be complaining.” a young mother said as she held her two children, a four year old boy named Ted and a six year old girl named May, close to her. 

“I wasn’t complaining, just stating the facts.” Hunter replied coldly as he crossed his arms behind his head. Ted began to cry softly as the young woman gave him a glare. “Sorry Sally, he’s just a bit on edge.” James quickly piped in. “We found… well, it was a burnt body…”

“Oh my god.” Sally muttered as she pulled her children closer to her. “How awful.” The group suddenly fell silent aside from Michael reemerging from his tent. “Why’d everybody get quiet all of a sudden?” he asked as he returned to his spot near the fire. “Don’t tell me its bad news.”

“These poor boys found a body.” Brenda told him before taking a bite of her fish. “Please, not in front of the children.” Sally quickly interjected. The old man shook his head. “Damn, I’m sorry about that boys, I shouldn’t keep asking you to go on these scouting runs. It’s getting too dangerous for you to be going out alone.”

“Relax. The guy we found was roasted like a Twinkie at the county fair and left to rot for god knows how long. We were alone except for a few of the dead, it’s clear now.” Hunter said with a slight smile. “Well, I wish I had better news for you all.” Michael said regretfully as he rubbed his head. 

“We’re out of almost everything but some food scraps now, maybe enough for a week if we ration them good. Aside from that and the pain pills we just got I’d say we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel here.” As he spoke these words the camp once again fell silent.

After a few moments had passed a younger man who had been an army private spoke up to James and Hunter. “This place you guys searched, is it secure? Does it have strong walls and doors? Maybe we could set up there for a few days and take some time to recover…”

“Hell yeah, I agree with Jason!” Hunter said enthusiastically. “The old bowling alley we found would be a great place to crash for a few days.” Michael’s eyes lit up a bit as if to consider the idea, though he stayed silent as the others talked.

“Given the shit we’ve all been living through I say we at least spend the night there. It’s getting colder by the day and whether this place is safe or not might be irrelevant if we can’t find a place to stay before winter hits.” Jason said as he finished off the last of his fish.

“Yes, I agree. This place may not be as safe as we’d all like, but we have to think of the children here. They won’t make it another month out here without shelter.” Sally added as her children huddled close to her.

“I say we go too, might be more food there.” a large college-aged guy with a beard said as he greedily gulped up his roasted fish. May began laughing as he then began picking bits of fish from his beard. “You’re supposed to chew it and then swallow, you horse.” Hunter taunted playfully as the big man licked his fingers.

“Oh shut up, Hunter. Keep talking and I won’t let you play any games with me when this shit gets back to normal.” Brent called back as he mimed rolling a handful of dice. “Oh whatever, like I’d want to play dungeons and dildos or whatever you call that shit.” Hunter replied as he stood up to stretch his legs.

“Can we all please watch the language? The kids don’t need to hear all this stuff.” Sally quickly spoke up as James let out a soft laugh. “Oh lighten up honey, we’ve got bigger problems than a few salty words.” Brenda said playfully while putting a hand on her friend’s back. “Now, are you boys gonna show us this place or are we sleeping in the dirt again tonight?”

“Alright, we’ll take Jason and Brent with us to make sure we can handle any of the Turned that show up. Once we’re sure it’s safe we’ll send someone back to bring you guys there.” James said as he stood up and waited for the others to grab their gear. “You don’t mind me coming along with you to scout this place, right?” Brenda suddenly called from her tent.

Hunter looked like he was about to say no, but paused when she emerged with a large golf club in her hand. “Didn’t know you were into golfing.” Hunter said with a laugh. “Oh hush, you know this belonged to my husband.” Brenda groaned as she walked over to where the two men were waiting.

“Right, uh… sorry about that. I didn’t mean-“ Hunter began to say before being cut off. “Oh don’t worry about it sweetie. If I know that man of mine he’s probably living it up out there on the high seas while we’re stuck on dry lands fighting for our lives. When this all blows over he damn well better be dragging a whale carcass up our driveway. God knows I miss that old fisherman.” Brenda replied with a laugh.

“How are you so sure he’s safe?” Hunter asked as Brent and Jason began walking over. “That man survived everything before this happened and was out on a fishing trip when the dead came. I miss him, but I’m probably more likely to die before we find each other than he is.” Brenda replied confidently as she looked over his golf club with pride.  


“It’ll take a while, but I’m sure he’ll find you eventually once things calm down a bit. I mean, this year will be our second winter, no way those things can just keep moving infinitely without decaying or something.” James said reassuringly as the group began heading out.

“Thank you.” Brenda replied as she wiped a tear from her eye. “Hopefully, this sickness or whatever it is doesn’t last much longer, I’d really like to see him again. I know he must miss me, he can be stubborn, but he’s the sweetest man I’ve ever met.”

“Be safe out there, if things turn ugly get back here and don’t try to fight! This place isn’t worth your lives, remember that!” Michael called as he served up another piece of fish to a member of the group who had just woken up. 

As the group entered the intersection Hunter moved ahead to scout each of the buildings to make sure they were clear. After putting down a Groaner that had slipped into the diner he met up with the rest of the group in front of the bowling alley.

“Let’s get this done quick and clean.” Jason said as he raised his machete and took the lead with Hunter following close behind. “Yeah, we need to get this place set up and secured before nightfall.” James said as he took out his knife.

As soon as the door was open Jason charged forward and impaled a Groaner on his machete that had been facing the door to the main lobby. With a quick pull of his muscular arm the blade came free through the bottom of the bastard’s neck, nearly decapitating it. “Well, looks like the hall is clear.” Brent said as Jason put down the monster’s still living head.

“Nice work team, let’s keep moving!” Brenda said as she got behind Hunter, who open the door to the main room. The inside was surprisingly clean except for some trash scattered about and some thick dust covering the overturned chairs and tables.

The place wasn’t huge, but there looked to be at least a dozen alleys as well as a small snack bar, arcade and an upstairs room. Had they not been fighting for their lives it would have been the kind of place the group would have visited on a Friday or Saturday night with their friends and family.

Only a few of the dead were downstairs and were easily dispatched by the group and their weapons. “Looks like we’re clean here, Jason and Brenda can help me check the back room while James and Brent search the upstairs.” Hunter called as he vaulted over the counter and began creeping up on the door to the grill.

“Sweet man, let’s knock some heads.” Brent called to James cheerfully as he waved from the stairs. James took a deep breath and quickly joined his companion on the wooden steps. “Alright man, let’s be quiet and do this carefully, one bite is all it takes to kill you.” Brent nodded as he tightened his grip on his sledgehammer.

As the door flew open both men gasped in shock. Standing before them was a shriveled woman in a torn dress with bloodstains covering her mouth. On her shoulder was a large bite, but it went unnoticed due to the gnawed horror crawling behind her. The thing was only a little girl, or half of one at least… her legs and lower torso were completely gone and she was missing most of her left arm.

Both of the things stumbled closer as Brent let out a yep and took a step backwards. “S-Shit. Stay c-calm man.” James muttered as he readied his knife. Brent was silent, but James had slowly adapted to the horror around him and wasn’t quite as fearful.

When the mother lunged towards him James struck quickly with his shaking hand and put his knife right through the thing’s festering skull. “Oh god…” James groaned as the rotting smell hit him. He pulled on his knife, but it was lodged too deep in the dead creature’s skull to immediately pull free.

“Oh god!” James wailed much more loudly as the smaller Groaner crawled up to his legs. He kicked it away, but its teeth were inches from sinking into his foot. “Help!” he shouted frantically as he tugged on his knife. Just when it looked like he might be cornered a thunderous whack echoed through the floorboards and shook the room.

James stared in shock as Brent dropped the sledgehammer from his hands and collapsed to the ground. “My god…” was all James could utter as he looked upon the tiny corpse’s smashed head. Within seconds the others barged into the room to see was the fuss was about. Several startled gasps and moans escaped their lips as Brent began to sob uncontrollably.


End file.
